Letter: My Noble, Long-Time Friend

I have been carrying a loaded Glock Model 17 handgun since 1990 all over the Twin States. That is almost 23 years of uneventful carrying of my noble friend, my G17. According to Randy Britton of Grantham, my G17 should have been involved in a violent crime by now. Well, the G17 has been out discreetly in public over 8,000 times, and not one person has been harmed by it. And multiply this by the thousands of other harmless occasions when other peace-loving citizens have carried firearms. It is called freedom and the constitutional right to bear arms, confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2008 Heller decision.

Now, if the government wants to enact new gun laws, it should pass concealed-carry laws that allow citizens to carry concealed weapons.